Some Japan pictures:

I was enthralled with this little display set up in our first hotel. It was so cute and detailed in miniature!



We made it here after a delay due to bad weather, and an even worse airline choice. We chose United because it made one stop less than Delta, but since United's main hub was in San Francisco, and it got extremely backed up due to weather, we started out in Boise in really bad trouble. One delay led to another, and we missed our international flight by about an hour. International flights are rarely delayed, so we really missed it. All of the other business people who even had a better shot making their connections, missed theirs as well. So we were all lined up in San Francisco waiting to have our tickets reissued, hoping there would even be room with all of the missed flights. The ticket agent said it had been that way (backed up) for 4 days....

Thankfully we had the agent in Boise book us as a back up plan on the next day's Japan flight--just in case, so we just needed seat assignments. They even put us up in a hotel and gave us meal vouchers, even though they were not supposed to since it was weather and not mechanical related. We had a nice relaxing dinner and night, and even though it took up an extra day in Japan it ended up being a nice break up of the flights.

We stayed at Okura Frontier Hotel in Tsukuba for a night...boy the rooms here are pretty small, and we had internet, but no adapter to charge or plug in the laptop.

Then we transferred to Hotel Mira Costa for 2 nights at Tokyo Disneyland. Now THAT is a hotel....much better! But no internet at it--at least we had an adapter to charge up the camera and camcorder.
Then last night we transferred to Urvest Kamata Hotel in Tokyo. This room was even smaller than the first, but it had internet, and an adapter, so I am finally able to use the laptop. I will be posting pictures, etc while Jared works a half day in Tokyo before our train leaves at 12. We will be flying out of Japan and going to Shanghai and arriving in the evening sometime. Our hotel there is supposed to be really nice. We shall see.....

Things that we love about Japan/Tokyo: (in not particular order) We knew alot of these things before we left, but it was nice to see it for ourselves.
1. The culture
2. The hospitality without an ulterior motive to be tipped
3. No tipping :)
4. The Olympic coverage!!! (puts America's coverage to shame!)
5. Alot of things (signs) are in English as well as Japanese
6. Respect for other people and their property
7. People will help you with directions just out of kindness
8. Their commercials and TV programs (hahaha)
9. Everything perfectly on time
10. Cleanliness

Things we did NOT love about Japan/Tokyo:
1. Walking in the streets
2. The smells
3. The food
4. Desserts
5. Busy times in the stations
6. Sticking out in crowds---lack of Westerners
7. Their camp out mentality
8. Sometimes they are too patient
9. The expense of things
10. The smoking everywhere (this was no surprise, but we still hated it)

If I think of more I will add it, but for now, check out time has moved up about 2 hours and I need to get going. I hope the next hotel has internet so I can post some pictures.